A musician named Tonedeff won the Lolapalooza Last Band Standing contest in 2006. Part of the prize package was “$10,000 worth of equipment from our friends at Gibson. (yes, believe it!).” Well, Tonedeff believed it, and he’s spent the last year and a half trying to get Gibson to make good on their promise. As Tonedeff notes on his blog, maybe he should have seen this coming when Don Pitts—Gibson’s Ambassador of Empty Promises (shown above with devil eyes)—told him, “I mean, this is kind of weird, because you know, you DON’T play the guitar or drums.”
When Tonedeff finally reached Gibson (they never called or emailed him after he won), Pitts told him to go online and pick out what he wanted. He picked out a Baldwin piano. Pitts wrote back, “Baldwin is the only division that’s not part of the deal…” So Tonedeff picked out a list of guitars, using Sam Ash and Guitar Center to check prices because Pitt/Gibson wouldn’t provide a price list. Pitt responded with revised prices that were at least 50% higher, reducing Tonedeff’s prize list by half. After some back and forth on “suggested retail price” versus “actual price,” Tonedeff gave up and opted instead to pick a single item, the most expensive he could find that came in under the $10k mark. Pitt just stopped talking to him at that point.
We’re not sure if Gibson thinks it’s okay to bail on their promise because Tonedeff doesn’t play rock music (suspiciously, they never followed through on a promised promotional photo shoot either), or if they never intended to give any winning artist the prize package. But it’s clear that they’re doing everything they can to give the middle finger to the winner of a contest they supposedly “sponsored.”
(Thanks to Chris!)
“[RANT] Gibson Hates Hip Hop.” [QN5 Blog]
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@minnock: A few years back i found a great all koa Carvin neck-thru for $150 at a pawnshop. Only problem was it was lefty. Got one of the local luthiers to put on a new nut and bridge and move the strap locks and viola $1000 guitar for $250 and it also looked cool upside down. This works best with guitars with deep or semmetrical cutaways. sg copies come to mind. It only took a couple of weeks to get used to the new position of the controls.
@CurbRunner:
He can’t afford to pay thousands for a lawyer. Gibson knows that (it isn’t rocket science, he’s a musician) and can bank on being able to screw him with impunity.
I’m not in Gibson’s market…but my boss is. Showed him the story, he says he’ll never buy Gibson again. Another ex-customer.
Gibson is penny-wise, pound foolish, like the oldtimers say.
Fucking idiots.
to YOURBFFJILL
Yes he did win stuff…from his website:
Where’s My Prize?
Here’s the itemized Grand Prize list. I’ve bolded what I DIDN’T receive:
* A spot on the lineup: an opening slot on a feature stage.
* Artist passes for the entire weekend with access to catering, the artist lounge, and everywhere else bands get to go!
* Rooms for the weekend at the House of Blues Hotel.
* Festival tickets for your friends to see you play.
* $10,000 worth of equipment from our friends at Gibson. (yes, believe it!)
* An interview and in-store performance at Virgin Megastore.
* Band promotion on the homepage of Lollapalooza.com and partner websites.
* Plus countless other Lolla goodies and schwag.
@snoop-blog: Amen, brother!
I’m still pissed at Gibson for destroying Oberheim, one of the greatest American synth manufacturers ever. If you’ve ever heard the Oberheim Xpander you’ll know why it’s a fucking tragedy to have the name and rights to the original Oberheim hardware schematics owned by a company who couldn’t give two shits about analog synthesis.
Fuck Gibson, I hope they fucking file for chapter 11.
@scoosdad: Interesting – not doubting you, but just wondering if you know who Tonedeff is? I’ve been listening to him now for a few years, even picked up his album “Archetype” and his group efamm’s album “Happy F*** You Songs”… and I’m pretty sure he runs a label. While I don’t think he’s rolling in dough, I don’t think he’s broke broke, either.
@ucdke: yeah, everything that he did receive he received from Lollapalooza, genius. He didn’t get anything from Gibson, which by contract he’s entitled to.
From now on I’m going to joint sponsor huge contests with my brand offering $50k prizes, and then when the other company puts up their end of the deal, I’ll just pull out saying “Well, you’re lucky you got what you did.” I bet that will hold up in court!
Gibson got publicity out of the deal by advertising their part of the prize package, and then didn’t deliver. How is that fair to Tone? How is that fair to Lollapalooza?
You’re seriously tripping if you think that he’s “lucky” after all of this.
@OrtizDupri: He maxed out his credit cards to buy the things he needed (and thought he would be able to get) for his studio.
Dude is an artist and a producer, AND runs the entire QN5 label, and still has to work a day job. Somewhere in there he has to find time to tour.
He’s not broke in the sense that he’s got a place to live and food to eat, but if you have to max out your credit cards, I doubt you’ve got enough money around to write a check to a lawyer.
It’s hard to make money off of a label when it’s one you’ve built from the ground up, so I wouldn’t assume that just because he “runs a label” he’s making more than he puts into it, because I know that’s false.
Glad you picked up some of his work though. There’s constantly great music coming out of the QN5 label.
Classic Gibson/Corporate/Guilty response. We fired that guy, this is the first I’m hearing about it and darn it, I’m gonnna get to the bottom of it. Reality is that a major part of the Gibson forest has been burned down already & here comes a guy with bucket of water….with the gall to try to look like the good guy. If not for this forum & the pressure brought to bear by the readers here & on other sites, nothing would be happening. Buying Gibson = buyer beware.
Post the terms and conditions of the contest, which would reveal a lot about this issue. MSRP sounds right to me.
@ogdensr: That’s the crux of the article, they only make good when it’s highly visible.
@Eyebrows McGee: Thank you so much for telling me that I’m a hack and “unprofessional” for daring to use items that are designed for easier use for me as a left-handed person. You obviously have no sense of what it’s like to try to use things that are designed to work against you. It’s so much easier when you’re righthanded because nearly everyone else is righthanded, right?
You come across as a huge jerk with that comment of yours. How about you keep using your right-handed stuff and I’ll keep using my lefthanded stuff and you stop making rude, insulting comments about something that is not exactly something we can control and is most likely in our genes?
Why should we lefties have to conform to the right-hander-biased world just because some asshole like you comes along and treats us as second-class citizens and worse because we’re different?
I have a lot of respect for other peoples’ viewpoints but you have just crossed a huge line, and you need to learn to keep your fucking mouth shut if your excuse for insulting people is that they’re hacks and unprofessional. Are we stupid, retarded, and unworthy of having been born too?
I can’t believe you actually dared to submit that piece of bullshit and next time I respectfully suggest you THINK BEFORE YOU SUBMIT.
Any update on this?